BurtOS-2

BurtOS encompasses the base station and rover computer applications deployed to operate the Binghamton University Rover Team's Mars rover. This 2.0 version was started in the 2022 competition year and will replace the legacy RoverSystem software. The decision to redevelop the software was reached after evaluating weaknesses and scalability issues in the legacy software. We intend BurtOS 2.0 to be highly modular to rapidly adapt to rover hardware changes.

Contents

• Components
• Building
  • Ubuntu
  • Windows
  • macOS
  • CMake Variables

Components

BurtOS 2 is a new project and thus this section reflects our design goals.

Base Station

Target name: basestation
The base station is used to drive the rover and monitor onboard sensors. The base station GUI will offer modular windows for monitoring the rover. The base station uses GLFW and NanoGUI for graphics rendering and input processing.

Subsystem

Target name: subsystem
The subsystem program runs on an onboard Raspberry Pi. It receives commands from the base station and controls hardware on the rover.

Video/Perception

Not updated for BurtOS-2. The video/perception computer program streams video from rover cameras to the base station.

Building

All libraries and applications in BurtOS 2.0 allow cross-platform development. However, we primarily support Ubuntu-based operating systems for deployment. The subsystem apps use libraries only present on Linux and/or Raspberry Pi OS, but these features are automatically disabled when unavailable on the system.

BurtOS 2 uses CMake, which generates makefiles for many build systems, compilers, and IDEs. Be sure to use CMake 3.16 or newer. Check whether CMake is installed and meets the version requirement with this terminal command: cmake --version.

If you intend on building the base station, run git submodule update --init --recursive from the repository root. Follow the build instructions for your platform.

Ubuntu

While you are not locked to a specific toolchain, the process suggested below will get you started. The dependencies, however, are not optional.

Suggested Toolchain

• Before starting, update your local package information by running sudo apt update. You may want to upgrade your packages as well (sudo apt upgrade).
• Install git: sudo apt install git
  • Clone this repository and enter the BurtOS-2 directory. Run git submodule update --init --recursive (unless you do not need to build the base station)
• Install CMake with: sudo apt install cmake.
• Install a C++ compiler. We typically recommended g++ (sudo apt install g++), though Clang should work too.
• Install a build system tool like Make or Ninja. Though Make is fairly ubiquitous, Ninja is newer, faster, and designed for automated generation by tools like CMake. We recommend Ninja, and these instructions always show Ninja. However, wherever ninja appears, it can be replaced with make to accomplish the same task (except for installation). Installation: sudo apt install ninja-build or sudo apt install make.

  Required Dependencies

• Install Boost libraries: sudo apt install libboost-dev libboost-program-options-dev
  • You need at least Boost 1.71. Older versions will not work.
• Install Protocol Buffers: sudo apt install protobuf-compiler
• Install Lua: sudo apt-get install lua5.3-dev
• Install libboost all: sudo apt install libboost-all-dev

Building

• Generate the build files with CMake by running this command in the repository root: CXX=g++ cmake -S . -B build -GNinja
  • CMake caches options like GXX=g++ and -GNinja in the build directory. To change a CMake variable definition (ex. change build type to Release), you do not need to supply the other options. In this example, cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release will work.
  • See the CMake Variables section for additional options.
• Build the project: ninja -C build. The executables are placed in build/bin/.
  • The -C [directory] option specifies the directory for Ninja/Make to use. The default is the current directory. You could also cd build and only run ninja.
  • For all target names, see Components. This example will build only the base station: ninja -C build basestation.

Windows

Only two options are supported for building on Windows: WSL and MSYS2 MinGW. If you choose WSL, follow the Ubuntu instructions. See MSYS2 MinGW instructions below.

MSYS2 MinGW

The Ubuntu section provides more context for each command, so read over that section, too. Both procedures are similar, but with different package managers (pacman vs APT) and different package names.

• Install git. You can use Git for Windows or install git in MINGW: pacman -S git. While both can be installed on the same system, they are not interchangeable since Git for Windows uses CRLF line endings and MINGW git uses LF line endings.
• Install CMake: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake
• Install Ninja: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-ninja
• Install Boost libraries: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-boost
• Install Protocol Buffers: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-protobuf
• Install Lua: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-lua
• Generate build files: CXX=g++ cmake -S . -B build -GNinja
• Build the project: ninja -C build

macOS

Must have Xcode, otherwise a compile error will occur as some of Xcode's command line tools are necessary.

• When installing Xcode your MacOS must be fully updated.

  Suggested Toolchain

  • Installing git: brew install git
  • Installing CMake: brew install cmake
  • Installing a C++ compiler should not be required as Xcode contains one suited for C/C++ files.
  • Installing a build system tool. Make or Ninja. We recommend Ninja as it is newer, faster, and designed for automated generation by tools like CMake. These instructions always show Ninja. However, wherever ninja appears, it can be replaced with make to accomplish the same task.
  • Installation: brew install ninja or brew install make.

    Required Dependencies

• Install Protocol Buffers: brew install protobuf
• Install Boost Libraries: brew install boost
• Install Lua: brew install lua
• Follow Ubuntu's build instructions.

  CMake Variables

  Set variables with CMake on the command line by adding: -DVARIABLE_NAME=VALUE

  NO_GFX

  Default: OFF
  Description: If set to ON, the base station and dependencies will not be built. Use when compiling on Raspberry Pi or when graphics support is not needed. If not specified, CMake will try to detect whether the system supports graphics. If OpenGL is missing, NO_GFX is set to ON and a warning is produced.

  BUILD_NETWORK_APPS

  Default: OFF
  Description: If set to ON, the network library example applications will be built. This includes chat and rtt.

  PKG_TURBOJPEG_PATH

  Default: /opt/libjpeg-turbo/lib64/pkgconfig
  Description: Search path for pkg-config to find TurboJPEG for the video computer. Only applicable if TurboJPEG was installed manually. Path is not referenced for packages installed with APT.

  (Future) ONBOARD_CAN_BUS

  Default: automatic detection
  Description: If set to ON, the subsystem program will be compiled with Linux-only CAN bus libraries. Otherwise, the program is compiled in offline mode and calling CAN bus functions has no effect.